Veneficus
by Surarrin
Summary: Following the wake of Dumbledore's death the days when Harry Potter could say he felt at ease were over, what was left was nothing but uncertainty. With that as motivation he threw the everything to the wind, in order to be certain about one thing.
1. The Storm's Beginings

**This will be the 'Rewrite' of Bad Luck.** **If you haven't read Bad Luck, don't read it, or it will spoil a pseudo-scene in this story, which happens quite a bit later. I don't have much to say about it right now. The first part may seem a bit awkward, but after that it should become more fluent. Thanks to the DLP crew for making sure I didn't mess up too much.  
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**Jon**

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Harry stared out over the sea of black in front of him. All of the Hogwarts students were finally going home for the holidays. Hours earlier, dark clouds had begun to form overhead. They had gradually blackened into storm clouds, and along with the clouds had come a gentle breeze. Surprisingly, as the beginnings of the storm came into being the breeze had remained the same. 

Unlike the majority of the student body, Harry was in no rush to go home. In fact he was almost detesting the idea of returning once more to the Dursleys. He was currently alone, watching the students in the years above and below him pass through Hogwarts main entrance. They for the most part were silent, a melancholy atmosphere had settled over them after Dumbledore's funeral.

There were of course some students who did not take note of the mood of the majority, those who had felt no compassion towards their late Headmaster, who were treating the day as one of the previous ends of term. As Harry had to endure their careless conversations he clenched his fists. It was only the knowledge that they knew little to nothing about the events which had passed that kept him from cursing them into the next dimension.

Through the thundering steps of the students heading towards the carriages, their conversations and the thunder which was echoing from over the Hogwarts lake Harry heard the woman on the opposite side the gigantic entrance breath heavily through her nostrils. Glancing over to her Harry was not surprised to find that her lip's were pressed quite hard together. It brought a smile to Harry's lips to see that at least one person found the banter the students shared his point of view.

The minutes ticked over until finally the last of the students had made their way down to the loading area for the carriages. Silently Harry nodded to Professor McGonagall. Before beginning to walk after the students, he had gotten ten meter's before a voice called out to him.

"Mr Potter, this is your last chance to tell us." called out the Transfiguration professor turned headmistress.

Harry paused upon his next step and turned his head along with his body slightly to the side, until his gaze landed back upon the older woman's.

"I'm sorry Professor, it's what he wanted." Harry said with a note of finality in his voice, before he turned back to the carriages and began to walk again away from Hogwarts, for perhaps the last time.

Almost all the carriages had either already landed upon the other side of the lake, or were in mid-run, cutting across the grounds. In fact, there was a single carriage left which had not already left. The last of the students had boarded the carriage, before the final student swung the door shut they caught sight of Harry and paused for a moment.

Harry quickened his pace instantly and not before too long he had made it to the carriage and was able to get a good look at the boy who had waited for him. The boy was in the same year as him, although they knew each other only in passing.

It was Blaise Zabini.

"Zabini." Harry said as he nodded to the dark skinned boy.

"Potter." Blaise replied casually as he nodded back and moved to the side to allow Harry into the carriage.

Upon entering the carriage Harry quickly glanced around to see who else had boarded the carriage. The stoic face of Theodore Nott was the first to greet him. Harry gifted the him with a small smile. Nott gave a small nod of his head before turning his attention elsewhere. Two seats across from him Harry was surprised to find Padma Patil next to the door, gazing out morosely before her eyes slid over to meet Harry's.

She gave him a small smile before turning her gaze back to the stormy view out of the window. Across from her Eddie Carmichael, a seventh year Ravenclaw was sitting with his nose buried in a book. A quick glance at the title was enough for Harry to have to hold back a laugh.

**Three Hundred and Three Ways to Make a Profit.**

A snort almost escaped Harry; during the exam period of his fifth year Eddie had tried to sell him something called Baruffio's Brain Elixir which would help him with the OWLs - needless to say he didn't really need any help in the end; he had passed. Blaise settled himself down between Theodore and Padma silently.

Oddly, the silence continued undisturbed until the carriage had arrived at the train station. One by one the occupants of the carriage filed out until only Harry and Blaise remained. As Harry was about to step off the carriage Blaise pushed past him.

"Good luck." Blaise said quietly before speeding up and walking away from Harry.

"Thanks." Harry replied quietly, giving no other reaction. Both of the boys walked silently at their own paces towards the train station after the rest of the student body.

Harry stared ahead past the moving black mass of students, trying to find the tell-tale red hair of his friend Ronald Weasley, who he was sure his other friend, Hermione Granger would be by. As it were there were only two puffs of red hair in the crowd, and they were well at the front, separate. Beside neither of them could Harry see the bushy brown hair of his second best friend; Hermione. The second, sleeker head of hair would have had to have been Ginny Weasley, Harry quickly surmised. He honestly didn't feel like being near the youngest Weasley at the present time. Slowly, he made his way through the masses of the Hogwarts students, who were slowly shuffling abroad the Hogwarts express.

Silently, Harry came up behind Ron and tapped him on the shoulder, before speaking quietly. "Where's Hermione?"

Ron glanced to the first few compartments of the train and then back to Harry.

"She's in the Prefect carriage." Ron said to Harry sullenly. "We both have to go there for a meeting. She told me to wait here for a few minutes to tell you, then I have to go myself," he finished bitterly.

Harry snorted lightly before waving his hand in the direction of the carriage. "You'd better not keep her, or the rest of the prefects waiting." He declared bemusedly, before walking with him to the entrance of the prefect carriage and leaving him to his devices.

Instead of heading back out into the sea of Hogwarts students, who were beginning to pile into the train, Harry chose to begin searching for a acceptable place to sit. There were few groups he felt comfortable sitting with. The entirety of the D.A had let him down, besides Neville and Luna, who he didn't feel like talking to, or being with, since it was almost certain that they would be with Ginny. For some reason, thoughts of the youngest Weasley were making him feel uneasy. As it were, he tried his best to put her out of his mind.

After a few minutes, Harry finally stumbled across an almost empty cabin, the only person inside was a girl he recognised barely. He stared through the panel of glass upon the door at her for a few moments.

The one thing which turned him off immediately opening the door and asking if he could sit down was that she had the Slytherin crest upon her chest. The girl, was for a lack of a better word, stunning. She had long blonde hair which cascaded down her back and framed her face, her eyes, Harry realised were quite clear, an almost white translucent blue. Her complexion was slightly pale, but it did nothing except give her a more fair appearance.

Gently Harry rapped upon the wooden frame, drawing the girl's attention, from a book which she was holding in her hands to the door. The moment her eyes landed upon Harry's face, recognition flashed within the depths of her eyes, followed by confusion. Taking a chance, Harry slid the door open a little bit.

"Excuse me, but could I please join you in here for the trip?" he asked hesitantly, drawing her attention away from the book she held upon her lap.

Instantly upon recognising Harry, the girl's eyes narrowed.

"And why would you want to do that?" she asked slowly, gently closing the book which sat upon her lap.

"There aren't really any other carriages left for me to sit in." answered Harry with a half truth.

The girl's eyes continued to narrow slightly, before she bit her bottom lip and her eyes returned to their normal shape. Harry had not expected the girl to be instantly trusting towards him, there was no reason for that, quite the contrary, in fact, considering how, with the few Slytherin's he knew his social session usually consisted of insults being thrown back and forth.

After a few more moments of silence, the girl nodded. Taking it as a positive sign, Harry slid open the door and entered the cabin, taking a seat across from the blonde haired girl.

"I don't believe we've been…properly introduced." the girl said after a few moments.

"You're right, I'm H-" Harry began to introduce herself, but he was quickly silenced by the girl in front of him.

"Harry Potter, I know, I'm Daphne Greengrass, it's a pleasure." the now identified Daphne said softly.

"What are you reading?" Harry asked as his eyes fell upon the Illegible title of the book.

Daphne gave him an amused smile before shutting the book and placing it cover down upon her lap.

"You didn't strike me as the kind of person who was interested in the written arts, Mr Potter." she said mockingly.

At first Harry was going to take offence at the declaration, but the smile that was upon her lips, and in her eyes told him that it was not meant in an offence way, it was jesting, as he and Ron had often done.

"I'm not particularly, but you seemed interested in the book." Harry admitted as he tore his eyes away from the cover of the book, and out to the window.

They had begun moving, Harry noticed, the train station had slipped away, and in it's place an endless sea of green had taken place, high above the grass covered slopes the storm clouds had reached their fruition and flashes of lightning had begun to tear across the sky. After the first few arches of lightning and roars of thunder the rain began to fall.

Harry almost lost himself to the display of nature, before Daphne's voice dragged his attention back to the her.

"It's kind of hard to explain." she said as she started critically into Harry's face, an action he took note of instantly, and began to lightly squirm under her eyes.

After a few moments she seemed to relent and a satisfied smile took place upon her lips.

"Do you know a lot about magical theory?" Daphne asked curiously.

Harry smiled sheepishly and shook his head.

"I'm more of a practical guy." he said with a small laugh.

To his surprise his laugh was lightly mimicked by Daphne, and not in a mocking sense.

"That's alright, you don't need to, since this will be a practical demonstration, in fact, you should be able to do this, I'll just instruct you on getting it right." the blonde haired Slytherin said as she shifted the book upon her laugh off of her lap and to the seat next to her.

She reached across to Harry and grasped both of his hands. At first Harry was slightly reluctant, but with Daphne's insistent pulling he had no choice, but to allow her to have her way.

"Alright, listen to me very carefully." she said clearly.

Harry found himself doing exactly that.

"The first step to getting this right is reaching the Gnosis state, which itself is simple as long as you want to reach it enough. Focus upon part of my face." Daphne demanded of Harry.

He instantly obliged and focused upon her eyes. The intensity he focused upon her eyes made Daphne flush slightly and tear her eyes away from his.

"Pick something else, like my lips." she said softly, before placing her focus back on Harry's eyes, which were thankfully focused a slight lower then hers.

"Alright, now Focus on my lips, memorise every single detail, don't think of anything else, just them." she said calmly.

And Harry did so, his entire attention was focus upon Daphne's moist lips. Normally when Harry thought about someone's lips his mind went to various thing's that they could be used for, thankfully, or rather, unfortunately, the lips he had to focus on were female, and thus his mind found it easier to use them, along with the person they were attached to.

In an effort to get rid of the mental images Harry's focus drifted away from Daphne's lips to the seat beside her, something which Daphne took notice of and reacted accordingly. A slight wince escaped Harry as Daphne's palm slapped against the side of his face, causing his attention to be redistributed even further.

"What was that for?" Harry asked angrily as he glared into the eyes across from him.

"You stopped focusing." she said smugly before frowning. "Maybe I didn't pick the right person for this, it doesn't seem like you can focus long enough."

Harry scowled.

"I can do this, it's your lips' fault I got distracted." he defended himself.

"Are you saying there is something wrong with my lips?!" Daphne demanded to know.

Harry flinched as a particularly loud crash of thunder coincided with Daphne's question. It made her appear much, much more scarier then she actually was. Unnerved by nature's 'siding' with Daphne, Harry said the first thing that came to mind, which happened to be the truth.

"No that's the problem." he said honestly before he could catch himself.

"Get your mind out of the gutter Potter, I haven't allowed anyone the pleasure of these lips, and you won't be the first." she said snidely.

"Sorry." Harry said automatically.

Daphne nodded her head and smiled lightly.

"It doesn't matter, I don't fault you for admiring." she said vainly.

Harry smiled bemusedly and just nodded.

"Although, I won't forgive you if you don't get this right." she said with a tone of finality. "Now, try again!"

Harry learned within the next half hour exactly why he should have been glad he hadn't known Daphne. She was, for the lack of a better combination of words; a Sadistic Slave Driving Bitch. But none the less, her method had been slightly effective, he had managed to reach the Gnostic stated, and had been able to maintain it for a few seconds.

Although Daphne hadn't been showing it, she was slowly becoming frustrated, every time Harry broke through and got closer her frustration eased slightly, but over all the frustration was still getting the better of her, it seemed that Harry wasn't as receptive to the negative reinforcement method. She _could _try Positive reinforcement, she supposed.

"Come on Harry." Daphne said with a slight pout. "If you get this right soon I'll give you a special surprise to do with it."

That seemed to be the right method, Daphne decided as Harry quickly seemed to fall into the Gnostic state quicker and quicker, and for longer and longer periods of time. After countless attempt's, Harry finally managed to achieve the proper state of mind that Daphne required.

"Good boy." Daphne said patronisingly, not that Harry took note of it, after all, it wasn't related to Daphne's lips, even though the words came from them. "Notice the colour of my lips, the shine upon them, my lipstick. Can you notice it slowly becoming darker, a more crimson colour?"

Daphne's words fluttered into Harry's ears and he took note of them. A dull nod came from Harry before Daphne's lips quirked up slightly.

"Is the lipstick sparkly or is it a deep colour?" Daphne asked as she inched closer to the black haired boy across from her.

"Sparkly." Harry said almost inaudibly.

Daphne smiled wickedly as she felt her lips tingle.

"That's enough!" she declared loudly, breaking Harry from his concentration

"I almost had it." snapped Harry as his eyes switched from Daphne's lips up to her eyes. He took note of the jovially sparkle that had come to inhabit them "Didn't I?" he asked quietly as his eyes shifted away from Daphne's.

"Let's check, shall we?" asked Daphne as she withdrew an elegantly designed stick from her robes, her wand, Harry realised a few moments after it had been completely revealed. The reason he had not recognised it immediately was because it wasn't the average wand that he had come to expect from Wizards and Witches.

With a flick of her wand and a few choice muttered words the air in front of Daphne shimmered and twisted, before out of thin air, as it would seem, a small mirror was conjured into existence. A dazzling smile lit up upon Daphne's face as she stared into the mirror.

It became obvious to Harry exactly how vain the girl in front of him was at that moment. But he paid that train of thought little attention as his eyes refocused upon the wand she held lightly in her left hand. Daphne's eyes met Harry's for a single moment, before she followed his line of sight to her wand.

"Do you like my wand? My Daddy had it made especially for me when I was born, he said that a pre-made wand wasn't good enough for me." she said happily as she traced her finger's over the side of the edge of the wand.

Harry grimaced slightly, he had managed to come across the female equivalent of Draco Malfoy, something he had wished he would never have been **privileged** to experience.

"Anyway!" Daphne said happily as she waved her wand haphazardly at the mirror which was still floating in front of her, causing it to implode, leaving naught but a wisp of smoke to attest to it's existence. "What's different about me?" her voice had become excitable, Harry noticed, but while he noticed that, he couldn't easily pick out what, if anything was different about her face.

"Uhm." came Harry's unintelligible murmur.

Daphne's lips contorted into a pronounced frown.

"I don't know." Harry mumbled as his eyes flickered around the girl's face.

The crystal eyed girl's lips twitched up slightly, and her tongue snaked out and moistened the lightly sparkling red of her lips.

"Come on." Daphne urged as she tapped her wand upon her lips.

At Harry's shrug Daphne frowned again, before her countenance turned thoughtful.

"I suppose you'd be hard pressed to find difference considering the nature of the state." she said softly to herself. "But you got it right, so you deserve the special present I promised to you if you got it right." Daphne said a bit more loudly.

She began to lean forward towards Harry, who was decidedly startled by the action, and even more so as she continued to lean forward as she far passed the personal buffer zone that most people took he courtesy to stay outside of. Ever so slowly Harry began to lean backwards, a bit quicker and quicker the closer that Daphne got, before after not to long his back was flat against the cushioned seat behind him.

"Close your eyes." Daphne demanded as she glared into Harry's eyes.

Harry glanced to his right, and then his left, taking note of the fact that during Daphne's advance her arms had found their way to either side of his head, keeping him in a relatively secure position. He had no reason not to oblige the girl's demand, Harry came to the conclusion of, and so he closed his eyes, albeit slightly hesitantly, and turned his head to the side, gracing Daphne with the side of his head.

"Defiant are we?" whispered Daphne into Harry's ear. "There's no reason to be." she said with a soft laugh. "Although, you're quite trusting for someone who has such bad luck."

Harry's eyes snapped open at Daphne's words, he was about to push her away, and then he froze. Daphne's lips pecked against his cheek lightly.

"It's nice to have someone trust you so, even if it isn't a conscious choice." Daphne said with a slight grin.

Harry turned his head towards Daphne with a stupefied and perplexed look upon his face. His finger tip's quickly found their way to his cheek and touched upon the spot where the blonde's lips had touched upon him. Across from him Daphne smiled impishly before waving her wand over her lips. Harry watched in fascination as the rich crimson drained away, revealing a pink hue in it's place.

Suddenly it clicked.

"Your lips didn't have lipstick on them before." Harry said as he reached forwards to Daphne's lips and attempted to touch them, only to quickly withdraw his hand as Daphne swatted at his hand.

"That's right." Daphne said with a small smile.

"But I didn't see you put lipstick on?" Harry half asked, half stated. "How did you put lipstick on without me noticing? I was staring at your lips the entire time." he said with a frown.

Daphne mimicked his frown to a deeper state.

"You really can be dense sometimes." Daphne said amusedly. "You did it you silly." she said as if she were stating the obvious.

"But I didn't have my wand." Harry said as his fingers brushed over the side of his robe, where his wand was placed.

"You don't need to use a wand to do magic." Daphne stated slowly as she stared Harry in the eyes. "You really don't read much magical theory do you?"

"I suppose I could lend you the book I'm reading." Daphne said to herself before falling silent as she contemplated that lie of action. "Would you return it to me next semester?" she asked.

Harry shook his head.

"I'm not coming back next year." he said.

The words seemed to foreign as they came off his tongue.

"You aren't?" Daphne asked startled.

"I'm not, I have other thing's I need to do." Harry said, before biting his bottom lip, to keep himself from spilling any more of his plans for the coming year.

"That's too bad." Daphne said with a frown. "It won't be the same without you risking your life to save a priceless artefact, a stupid red-headed girl or winning an international tournament."

"Ginny isn't stupid." Harry said automatically as his fist clenched.

Daphne arched an eyebrow to Harry's sudden outburst.

"Oh, I forgot, she's your girlfriend isn't she?" Daphne asked, although, Harry could tell from her voice she didn't care in the slightest.

"No we broke up at Dumbledore's funeral." Harry said as he turned his eyes to the window, and the blurry beyond, which was barely visible past the torrents of rain and the darkness brought on by the storm clouds, or perhaps it was the darkness of night, Harry couldn't tell.

"Don't you mean you dumped her like last week's dress robes?" Daphne asked cheekily.

Harry couldn't help but smile even slightly at Daphne's infectious grin, before he caught himself.

"That isn't very nice." he said before he folded his arms across his chest and glared at Daphne.

The glare coupled with the stance seemed to have the desired effect as Daphne shrunk back slightly, she seemed to become hesitant again as she stared uncertainly into Harry's face.

"You shouldn't be so…uptight." she said slowly, before seeming to get back into her previous 'groove'.

"You shouldn't be so rude." Harry said in retort.

Daphne just smiled despite the rude reply.

"You're an interesting guy, Harry, I hope we can talk now and then even if we aren't close to each other, say… if you're on the other side of the planet, even."

Harry stared at Daphne blankly.

"I'm sorry but, I don't think Hedwig will be very impressed if I make her fly that far just to deliver a single letter." Harry said as he glanced towards the door, where a surplus of noise was coming from.

"Hedwig? Your owl? I'm sure she'd do it if it was for me." Daphne said light heartedly.

Harry shook his head.

"I know that she won't." Harry said firmly, hoping to dissuade Daphne from taking up the venture with any owls at all in the future. "None of the owl's would be able to do it, it's a bit far."

Daphne bit her bottom lip.

"But I want to talk to you during the year." the dainty Slytherin said with a pronounced pout. "I'll get my Daddy to find a way, some how." she assured Harry, or in Harry's opinion, she assured herself.

"Besides, it isn't like you'll actually be on the other side of the world." Daphne dismissed as if it were a matter of fact.

Harry smiled at Daphne slightly, before he opened his mouth to speak. Unfortunately, or rather, Fortunately, Harry couldn't decide, he was interrupted.

"Oi Harry!" shouted a voice from outside the door, just out of sight.

Both Harry and Daphne found their attention being drawn to the door just as a head of red hair came into view, along with the familiar, for Harry, face of Ron Weasley came into view. The tall lanky boy's lingered on Daphne for a moment, before he looked away and continued on, without taking a glance anywhere else in the cabin.

"Ron don't just glance, make sure Harry's not there before you move on." a patronising voice came from beyond the wall.

"Just some Slytherin girl." Ron's voice called out from beyond the cabin's view.

Rather quickly a frowning Hermione came into view and glanced into the Cabin. Her eyes landed upon Harry's unique green eyes almost straight away and his visage, she immediately released her frown, and a small smile of relief came to upon her lips.

"Harry, we've been looking everywhere for you." Hermione said exasperatedly as she slid the door open and stepped inside. "We checked with Ginny and Luna but they didn't know where you were and we checked with every…" she trailed off as her eyes came to rest upon Daphne.

"I'm sorry, that was rude of me." she said slowly before smiling unsurely, not unlike how Daphne had when Harry had showed up at the door prior.

"Yes, very rude, in fact." Daphne said as she stared up calculatingly from her sitting down position into Hermione's face.

"I'm Hermione Granger." Hermione said as she attempted to salvage the polite dignities that she usually displayed.

"I know, we have quite a few classes together, Arithmecy and Ancient Runes are two of the unique ones." Daphne said calmly as she observed Hermione. "I'm Daphne Greengrass by the way." she introduced herself with a small smile.

"It's a pleasure to meet you." Hermione said with a mimicking smile, before she turned her attention to Harry. "Everyone's waiting for us at the other end of the train, shall we go?" she asked before smiling lightly at Daphne and turning to the door and opening it again.

Harry blinked lightly before turning to Daphne and smiling apologetically.

"Sorry I have to go." he said ruefully.

"But-" Daphne tried to say, but was unable to as another voice called out from outside the room.

"Hermione, I couldn't find Harry anywhere down there have you heard anything about him?" called Ron as he pushed open the door to the cabin.

"There you are!" Ron said loudly with a grin as he reached across the cabin to Harry and yanked him up by the shoulder. "Come on Luna has something to show you." the red-head said as he dragged Harry from the cabin.

Harry was able to look to Daphne one last time and was able to mouth an apology to her before he was forced out of the cabin, he was, however, able to notice the indignant glower she was sporting. He was able to hear Hermione say something before she exited the cabin with a bewildered smile, but he was unable to make it out.

"The prefect meeting ended a while ago and we've spent all this time searching for you." Hermione said to Harry as they walked down the corridor.

"Sorry, I didn't find where they were." Harry said apologetically.

Inside, however, he was getting slightly worried. He hadn't ever before gone as far as to use half truth's to mask his intentions, and yet, within the last hour he had done so, twice. It disturbed him how easy and natural it felt. Was it what Dumbledore had felt when he had subjected the people around him to incomplete truths?

"It doesn't matter, but you're lucky we were able to save you from that Slytherin girl." Ron said as he glanced backwards to Harry. "She could have cursed you."

"She didn't seem like that kind of person to do that, she seemed reasonable." Hermione said as she sped her movement's up slightly to Harry's side.

"She was nice, we talked a bit about magic, she seemed pretty casual about the whole thing." Harry said just before Ron stopped.

"Here we are." the red-headed boy said as he pushed the cabin's door open and stepped inside.

Harry soon followed afterwards and the sight of Ginny, and to a lesser extent, Neville crowded around a magazine held in Luna's hands. The three year seven Gryffindors sat down on the left side of the cabin. Crookshanks, Hermione's pet cat was lounging around over head. Harry had no idea how he had managed to get up there by myself.

The moment they had entered the cabin Luna's eyes snapped upwards from the article she was reading and came to rest upon Harry's. Her eyes briefly flickered to his cheek, before she gifted him with a content smile.

"We were just reading about How Dumbledore is really a Phoenix animagus and that he tricked everyone and flew away after his funeral." Luna said airily before she frowned.

"You should be more careful Harry, you have a cootie mark on your cheek." the blonde Ravenclaw said before turning her attention back to what Harry assumed to be the newest edition of the Quibbler.

Harry blinked stupefied for a moment before he reached up to his cheek and rubbed it gently, inside he was dreading what he knew he'd find. The glare that was laid upon Ginny's eyes was enough to confirm the existence of the 'cootie' to him. He didn't need to feel the smooth texture of lipstick on his finger tips to know it was there.

"What are you talking about?" Ron demanded to know before he turned Harry around to face him.

The moment his eyes landed upon the lipstick upon Harry's cheek his eyes darkened, before slowly turning back to normal.

"Look's like Harry didn't escape Romilda in time." Ron said in an attempt to lessen the hostility that had begun to cloud the cabin.

Ginny spent the longest time staring into Harry's eyes before nodding lightly and turning her attention back to the Quibbler article.

"She's right scary." Neville said with a frown upon his face. " Once during the year she cornered me with all her friends and demanded to know everything I knew about you."

"Sorry about that Neville." Harry said apologetically, and he meant it; he didn't want his friends being harassed because of him, especially if it was so trivial.

"Yes, well you both don't have to worry about her for quite some time." Hermione said with a tight lipped smile.

"Are you coming back next year?" Harry asked suddenly as he turned his gaze directly to Neville.

The introverted boy seemed a bit startled at being asked such a thing, before he took hold of himself and answered.

"My Gran doesn't think I should, she tried to take me home before the Headmaster's funeral, but I'm going to finish next year." Neville said firmly.

"That's great to hear." Harry said with a smile.

"How about you Luna? Ginny?" he asked the two fifth year girls.

"I'm coming back." Ginny said without looking up from the magazine.

"I'm not sure if I'm coming back or not." Luna admitted casually as she turned to the next page of the Quibbler.

"Why?" "What?" You're joking?" were three of the responses that came at Luna's response to Harry's question.

"It might not be safe anymore, without Dumbledore here to protect everyone the Heliopath's have no one to stop them from taking control of the castle and burning it down." Luna said with a reminiscence of sadness in her voice.

"Luna, the castle is made out of stone." Hermione said slowly.

The girl in question nodded gravely.

"Exactly, and if the Heliopaths attacked then the stone would melt." Luna said to Hermione in a flat tone, as if it were obvious to the average person.

"Luna, it would be impossible to liquefy solid stone, there isn't any feasible way to-" Hermione tried to dissuade Luna from the insanity that she was spouting, but Luna persisted.

"That's what they want you to think, but if they can make fire's hot enough to burn water then they can make them hot enough to burn stone." Luna said with a strong resolve.

"Even if the Heliopath's attacked I'm sure the Giant Squid would be able to stop them." Harry interjected before Hermione could try to reason with Luna again.

Luna took on a thoughtful look before she nodded.

"You're right, Heliopath's can't stand sea life, because they're three time's removed cousins." she said with a small smile. "Thank you Harry, now I can go back next year without worrying." the blonde said honestly.

Hermione glared lightly at Harry. The message was clear; 'Don't encourage her'. To the 'glare-o-gram' Harry just shrugged.

"Why haven't you gotten that off your cheek yet?" Hermione demanded to know before withdrawing her wand from within her robes and pointing it at Harry's cheek.

Harry stiffened immediately and his eyes centred upon the wand.

"_Albuo_." she hissed out and jabbed it at Harry's cheek.

He immediately flinched away from the semi-sharp object.

"Have you read the debate between the Albutus charm and the Expurgatus charm? It says that while The Albutus is good for cleaning stains, the Expurgatus charm work's best for skin because it doesn't effect the tissue, and leaves it unblemished instead of in a rash-like state, I found it interesting." Ginny said amusedly as she watched Harry's cheek redden.

Hermione shrugged and smiled lightly.

"I have, but the Albutus charm is more effective." the aggravated brunette said innocently.

Harry doubted anyone thought she was innocence, not with the glare still barely hidden within the depths of her eyes.

"I'd have preferred the less painful method." Harry muttered as he gingerly touched his cheek.

Hermione smiled smugly at the look of discomfort on Harry's face.

Behind Hermione Ron was making faces at her back. It took all Harry could muster to stop himself from laughing out loud, and more importantly, to keep his eyes on Hermione, as to not alert her to Ron's actions.

"Oh, oh, I know this game, it's charades isn't it?" Luna said excitedly as she closed her copy of the Quibbler.

"You're… a Brown haired girl who just cursed one of her best friends because he didn't immediately remove a patch of lipstick from his cheek, aren't you?" Luna guessed thoughtfully.

"I didn't get it?" Luna said with a slight pout as she watched Ron's facial expression's shift from ridiculous faces to a horrified look.

"_Icio Kaput, Kaput, Kaput!_" Hermione yelled angrily as she brandished her wand towards Ron.

A series of yelps and slight screams came from the cabin and echoed through the hallway of the train.

The rest of the journey passed in relative silence, for Neville, Ron and Harry it was to be sure that they wouldn't bring the wrath of Hermione upon them, and for Ginny, Hermione and Luna it was because they were all reading. They arrived at their destination, Platform Nine and three quarter's far sooner then Harry would have wished.

One by one group left the carriage and converged upon the platform. Within five minutes they had each found their own separate trunk, and in Harry's and Ron's case owl cages. Unsurprisingly, the amount of students was far less then what there had been at the start of the year. It saddened Harry to think that when the time came for the students to return to the platform there would be even less.

Although he could no longer see the sky, or hear anything except the hustle and bustle of the students and their parents, he could tell that the storm hadn't let up yet. It had spanned from Hogwarts all the way to London. It was unnatural, yet none of the other students had taken note of it.

"Mum's here." Ron called out to Ginny from over where he was, near the entrance and exit to the platform, and as he had said Mrs Weasley in all her motherly glory was standing near Ron, waving to Ginny, beckoning her over. She was probably motioning for himself to, Harry decided, but he paid the Matriarch of the Weasley family no more attention.

"I'd better go through to see if my parents are outside." Hermione said sadly. "I'll be in contact soon." she said to Harry with a kind smile.

"You aren't coming back to school next year, are you?" Neville said glumly.

Luna snapped her head towards both Harry and Neville in confusion.

"You aren't?" she asked startled before focusing directly on Harry. "Why not?!" she said a bit louder then was necessary.

Harry stared at Luna perplexed for a single moments before mentally shaking himself.

"I have things to do." he said vaguely.

Luna frowned lightly.

"You can't do that, only I can do that, you aren't me." she said childishly. "Now tell me why!"

"I have to go figure out a way to kill Voldemort before he kills me." Harry said flatly.

Neville's face took on a look of horror, and he opened his mouth, probably to protest, but Luna beat him in the race to form words.

"Oh, is that all?" she asked bemusedly. "That's alright then, as long as you send a postcard."

Harry blinked, and then blinked, and for the sake of it blinked again.

"You're alright with the-How do you know what a postcard is?" Harry asked before glancing at Neville, who seemed to be dazed.

"Will you?" Luna prompted.

"If I have time to I will, to both of you." Harry informed both of them with a small smile upon his lips. "I don't want to become distant to either of you."

Both Luna and Neville smiled in appreciation.

"Neville! Where are you Neville?" an old voice called out from near the portal.

"I have to go." Neville said sadly, before smiling one last time at both his friends his hand out to Harry.

Harry smiled at Neville and gripped the long-faced boy's hand and shook it. Neville smiled one last time before turning away from Harry and Luna and walking towards his grandmother.

"I have something for you." Luna said almost silently, drawing Harry's attention back to her.

Harry froze as he stared into Luna's eyes. Unlike the multitude of times he had looked upon them, they weren't glazed, slightly out of focus, and they did not have the vague gaze that he had usually come to expect from the younger Ravenclaw.

Luna reached up to her neck and grasped the Butterbeer cork necklace that she was wearing. She lifted it up over her head, only to manage to cause her hair to splay out awkwardly. She brushed her hair out of her eyes with her finger tips, before presenting Harry with the unique necklace.

"Luna I can't." Harry began to protest, but he was quickly silenced by the usually absent minded girl.

"If you don't I'll be mean." Luna said calmly as she continued to hold the necklace out for Harry to take.

"I've never seen you be mean, and how would you?" Harry asked amusedly.

"I'll tell Romilda Vane where you live." Luna said flatly as she prompted Harry to take the necklace again.

Harry's smile melted from his face.

"You're lying." he said slowly.

"I'm not." Luna said firmly before gripping Harry's hand and placing the necklace in it, before curling his finger's closed.

Harry couldn't help but smile despite himself.

"Thank you, Luna." he said softly before Sliding his hand backwards and attempting to push it into his pocket.

"Uh, uh." Luna chided lightly before taking Harry's hand back in her own and withdrawing the necklace from it's clutches. She dropped it on top of his head and then pushed it down.

Harry grimaced as she forced the necklace down until to rest upon his neck.

"How come it came off so easily for you and was so hard to put on?" Harry demanded to know.

"Because it's mine and not yours." Luna said as if it were obvious.

"How about this." Harry said as he gripped the sides of the necklace and attempted to pull it up over his head.

Luna sighed and helped Harry take off the unique necklace.

"Here." Harry said as he undid the knot which connected the two ends of string and removed a single butterbeer cork.

He quickly tied the string back together and handed it back to Luna.

"I see." she said quietly, before smiling up at Harry and placing her necklace back on her neck. "When I see you again you'd better still have it, or else I'll-"

"Luna?" an unfamiliar voice called out through the train station.

Luna smiled one last time at Harry before hugging him and running off to who, Harry assumed to be, her father, or rather, as well as one could run with a heavy trunk to pull.

Harry sighed to himself and glanced around, there was no one left, which meant that it was his time to go. With one last glance to the Hogwarts express, Harry began to walk towards the barrier between the magical Platform Nine and Three Quarters, and the Non-magical Platform Nine and Ten.

* * *


	2. Hedwig Is Such A Brat

**The Second Chapter, not much to say Except Thanks to Murton over at Darklordpotter for Betaing it to hell and beyond. Which is the reason, it is either awesome, or why it doesn't seem like me at all.**

**Jon**

**P.S Random much? (You'll see what I mean.)**

**P.S.S Thank you to Rob, also over at DLP for correcting most of the errors.  
**

* * *

The non-magical side of London terminal was as active as the magical one. Only platforms nine and ten were almost empty. 

Platform Nine and three Quarters was in itself a magical place, yet it was a direct representation of the London terminal in which is was secretly housed. The two worlds were joined by this one place, yet the respective occupants were quite oblivious to the happenings of the other.

In the distance Harry could see some magical families vanishing at the end of the platform amongst the crowds. He was able to catch sight of Hermione a second before she, along with her parents, vanished into the crowds.

Passing through the brick portal, Harry scanned his surroundings noticing how the oddly dressed wizarding families melded into the Muggle crowds and on their way home. With one last glance, Harry was able to spot Hermione and her parents as they vanished into the crowds.

Harry's eyes scanned the platform in search of a certain group of Muggles who happened to be his immediate relatives. It didn't take long until Harry's eyes came to rest upon the stressed visage of his uncle, who, unsurprisingly, was standing on the far side of the platform, far away from all of the people who were coming into existence through the wall between platform nine and ten.

For a single moment the raven-haired wizard considered just walking away, and leaving his uncle standing there. But after that moment the idea was crushed aside. He had to wait until his birthday, he repeated in his mind, over and over again, as he walked towards the sizable form of his uncle, with Hedwig and her cage in one hand, and his trunk in the other. It surprised Harry to see that next to Vernon there was a trolley. A small flicker of a smile appeared upon Harry's lips before he quenched it.

"Uncle Vernon," Harry said loudly, drawing Vernon's attention.

"Took you long enough," Vernon grumbled as pushed the trolley out towards Harry. "Be quick; Petunia expected us to be back half an hour ago."

Harry nodded silently and put Hedwig's cage down on the ground, before gripping his trunk with both hands and heaving it up onto the trolley. He quickly picked up Hedwig's cage and placed it on top of the trunk.

"Quickly!" Vernon said as he motioned for Harry to follow him.

"The bloody storm outside is getting worse and worse," The podgy man complained as both he, and Harry moved into the crowd scurrying around the station. "Started without warning and hasn't shown a single sign of letting up; it's unnatural, probably one of your _kind_." Vernon glared pointedly at Harry.

Harry simply shrugged.

"I don't know anyone who has the ability to influence the weather, so I don't think it was one of my _kind_." Harry said calmly.

As Harry and Vernon pushed their way through the masses of people going their various ways, Harry's thought's turned to the storm outside. It was, without a doubt, the same storm that had begun to form at Hogwarts. It was almost impossible for it to have stretched the entire length of the journey all the way to London.

"Where else is the storm?" Harry asked suddenly as they stepped out of a particularly congested part of the terminal.

"It's everywhere, from Cornwall to Wales, the weather bureau has no idea how it started, it just began forming five hours ago, bloody thing has caused crashes all over the roads, it didn't help that most of them were blooming maniacs." Vernon ranted as he and Harry finally made it to the nexus between the terminal and the parking lot.

Although the storm, on the way down from Scotland, was all over the train, with only a few millimetre's of glass protecting him from it, the reality of how bad the storm was hit him hard. It was almost impossible to see beyond five meters, the darkness was almost absolute, except for the flashes of lightning which arched across the sky, providing a small amount of light. Harry was immensely thankful for the fact that the train was an enchanted object. While the rain against the window wasn't exactly toned down, everything else was, the sound, the cold- everything. He had considered the slight chill in the station to be annoying, but beyond the confines of the station, it was worse.

They managed to make it to the car in one piece, although, in Harry's case, a lot wetter, and colder then he should have been, he had to take his top layer of clothing off to put over Hedwig's cage, to protect her from the heavy rain. At first he hadn't thought about his feathery companion, but as they approached the storm ridden, uncovered area, she had begun to raise hell, drawing attention to them. Harry understood quite quickly what was causing the white bird distress and shed his top layer of clothing in an attempt to save Hedwig from the chilly rain.

In retrospect, Harry realised it would have been easier to just open the trunk and get a spare robe or something to protect Hedwig, but it didn't really matter, he had already been drench with rain.

The ride to Number Four, Privet Drive was mostly uneventful, except for the few near misses with what Vernon dubbed 'Moronic Driver's who couldn't hold their booze.' The further they got out from the city the fewer crash sites they passed. The crashes, and the storm itself gave Harry a lot of time to think in the car, with the threat of having an accident, Vernon was taking the utmost care with driving.

'What was he going to do, was one of the questions that plagued his mind. He knew how he was going to start out. He would wait until his birthday at the Dursleys, and then leave for Godric's hollow. The reason for going there was simple; he needed to see where it all began. But where he would go from there' he wondered.

Harry supposed the best way to plan, was to layout the needs in his mind. He _needed_ to travel. To travel he _needed_ money. The entirety of whatever money he had rested at Gringotts. While he had fifty or so galleons on him, he was sure it wouldn't last the entire time.

He _needed_ to get better at everything. He had no delusions that he was a match for anyone in Voldemort's service, except Wormtail, in a straight duel. The most damaging spell he had in his arsenal was _Secrumsempra_, he needed more. While they did not have to be lethal, they did, have to be potent, a stronger stunner would suffice in most cases.

But where did one find the higher spells? Books were the most obvious sources. Flourish and Blotts was the most obvious place he could procure such books. At the worse case scenario of them not having any books which contained what he needed, he supposed he could head down Knockturn Alley, there was surely some books there that would help him. He had been down the alley two times in his life. Those two experiences didn't give him much of an opinion on the place. It seemed to be a hub for the recluses of the magical world, people who didn't fit anywhere else. That didn't mean it was the perfect place for powerful magic. Items of dubious nature, yes, but not magic.

But if that was the case, then the only real place he could go to learn would be a school, and if Hogwarts curriculum was the rule, then that wouldn't help at all. Its library perhaps would provide knowledge, but if he did rejoin Hogwarts, or join another school he would be expected to stay, and probably forced to, something which wouldn't sit well with him at all.

Florish and Blotts was his best bet, Harry decided. Even if they didn't have exactly what he wanted, he could work his way up. Daphne had pointed something out to him, which should have been blatantly obvious; he had no actual understanding of magical theory, he was more of a practical person, but without the basic understanding of magic, he was sure he wouldn't be able to go as far as he could.

The sound of knuckle hitting glass met Harry's ears, causing him to look to the window on his left, where his Uncle was hurriedly tapping on the glass. Within seconds Harry had opened the door and stepped out into the rain. Both he and his uncle quickly made their way to the back of the car and unloaded the trunk. Less then a minute later both of them were in the hallway of Number Four, quite a bit wetter then either of them would have liked to be.

"Take your stuff upstairs and don't come down until tomorrow." Vernon said grumpily as he wiped the excess water off of his clothes and face.

"I just need to go and get Hedwig from the car," Harry said as he opened the door and raced back out to the car, in order to retrieve his feathery friend.

Hedwig didn't seem too impressed that Harry had come back to retrieve her, but none the less allowed him to make it back to the house without her throwing a tantrum. The moment he got to his room and released her however, she made a bee line straight to his bed.

"Hey!" Harry said indignantly as he watched his owl land down upon his bed. "That's my bed!"

Hedwig stared at Harry for a moment before she hooted haughtily and nestled down against his pillow. Harry just stared stupefied before he scowled.

"And where am I supposed to sleep?" Harry demanded to know.

A low hoot came from Hedwig.

"Oh that's real mature." Harry muttered before he glanced away from his bed to his trunk.

He couldn't go to sleep, or else Hedwig would keep him awake with her squawking, and if that happened Vernon would barge in yelling, and the situation would just elevate. The only thing he really could do was unpack, or read. Unpacking was pointless though as there was nothing he could actually use except for the books. Having gone through them and had found nothing interesting enough to read through again.

Harry frowned lightly as he repeated his thoughts on the subjects. It wasn't a very productive thought pattern, just because something wasn't interesting didn't mean it wasn't useful. An example of something that wasn't interesting was the Protean charm that Hermione had used in their fifth year. On paper it didn't sound nearly as practical as it did in practice.

A sigh escaped Harry's lips as he resigned himself to his fate until he was able to escape from his self-imposed imprisonment. He knelt down upon the floor and passed his fingertips over the floor boards of the room, after a few boards his fingers felt a slight crease in the wooden boards physical depths. His fingers dug into the sides of the board, and with a single yank, dislodged it from the floor. Underneath there was a veritable trove of books, all placed in neat rows. There was over five years of knowledge in them. Yet, almost none of it was very practical.

With that thought in mind, Harry began his tedious task, going through every single book, looking for information.

By the time his birthday rolled around, Harry had gone through each of the books at least three times each. The information within them was as it had been since he had first laid eyes on them, and thus, not useful. After all, Harry didn't think there was any practical application for a charm that turned peoples nails different colours. Well there was a cosmetic use, but it wasn't useful to him. The same could be said about a transfiguration incantation which turned an animal into a goblet. Why do that when you could just turn a clump of dirt into one? It was quicker, and as an extra plus the animal you would use it on wouldn't hate you when they were turned back.

The spells over all were just things that would only be needed in extremely specific circumstances. The Defence Against the Dark Arts books were widely useless, yet they mostly dealt with Dark creatures. Gilderoy Lockhart's books actually went into explanation on some of the techniques he had used. Harry hadn't even taken the time to read them, as it was most likely the golden haired idiot just made some random crap up.

He honestly didn't know why he still had those books.

The divination books he had from his third, fourth and fifth year actually had a helpful spell in them. _Astrum Ubi_ was a spell which the early Divinationists used to plot the stars in co-ordination with the North and South stars. Or so it had begun as time had gone on, they had changed and adapted the spell. It had evolved to the stage where instead of just showing the location of those two stars, it showed all of the other plotted ones. Far beyond that it had also been adapted to the planets and their rotations.

Interestingly enough, despite the fact it incorporated such a large amount of the universe, it had been, in recent years, increasingly ignored in favour of the class of Astronomy. It was outright banned in the class. Harry had to give the Divination professor credit when it was due. The spell wasn't mentioned as a usable technique, it was just mentioned in passing in a reference to previous methods.

It seemed that no one had cared enough to go through the book and see if it had any disapproved material. It would explain how Lockhart managed to get his books put in the curriculum, even if it was just for a single year.

Harry was actually impressed with the spell. With it, and a little study, he would be able to tell the exact time without a watch, which was a godsend, as he had gone two years without a watch it was high time he had a way to tell the time. Besides that, there was little to nothing in the divination books. There were small segments about Prophecies, but all they explained was the supposed reasons they came into existence, which basically amounted to 'Destiny decided to screw around'. Not helpful at all.

His potion's books had offered an interesting array of information, not spell related, but interesting all the same. Snape had stretched the truth a bit when he had offered the possibility of 'putting a stopper in death'. There were quite a few potions which reversed the damage on a person's body. It also explained one of the reason's wizards and witches were able to live for such long times. There were potions which could slow down the degeneration of cells effects on the body.

While a normal person's cells continued to replicate, they became less and less efficient at containing the 'information' within them. This was the reason such things as ageing occurred. The Cell Regeneration potions described in the later edition of the potion's text actually slowed down the degeneration of information. Most wizards began to take the potion around their fifty's, or at least that was what was recommended. It was possible to begin ingesting the potion at anytime, but doing so at his current age would no doubt stun his growth in all forms. While he had gone through puberty and most o the changes in his body were complete, he still hadn't finished growing. Taking the potion at his current age wouldn't have boded well, unless he felt like looking like a teenager for at least thirty years.

The Hogwarts curriculum books were all over the floor. Harry was lying upon his bed, and every now and then he found himself becoming restless. It was half an hour before his birthday, half an hour before he could begin to use magic. It seemed his family were getting restless also, for all intents and purposes they should have been fast asleep, yet every now and then he heard the floor boards creak along with the staircase. Time seemed to be moving slower then usual, for every minute or so he counted in his head less then half had passed in the real world, or so he'd believe if he went by the small alarm he had on the dresser beside his bed.

He could almost swear that the rusted object was slowing down on purpose, just to spite him. Beside the clock was a list of spells that he had found in the textbooks which he would practice.

He had no idea how it was possible, but the storm had still not let up. It had been going on for a month and a half, the entire time he had been out of school. What was more unsettling then the storm its self, was the fact that there were no mentions of floods. The water was obviously everywhere, yet no where had become flooded. He had previously thought it wasn't magical, but as time went on it became more and more apparent that it may not have been the case.

He doubted there were many people left alive who had the knowledge, or power to disrupt the weather pattern's to such a degree. But no matter how hard he thought, he could see no reason why anyone would put Britain into a perpetual state of stormy weather. On one hand it had created a massive casualty rate on the roads, on the other hand it seemed to be depressing people and making them lethargic.

If it had not been for electric lights, darkness would have been all too common all over the place. Without the storm clouds letting up there was no natural sunlight, there was only the clouds, darkness, and the occasional flash of lightning through the sky.

The damp smell of rain had begun to permeate through his room. It wasn't entirely unpleasant, but it did make Harry feel uncomfortable. It reminded him of the dungeons at Hogwarts, the same dank smell was soaked into the corridors.

A clap of thunder drew him away from his musing. He had no idea how he was going to get Hedwig out of the house, and there was no way he'd leave her with the Dursley's. There was the option of transfiguring her into an object to take with him, but he doubted that the avian would enjoy that course of action. He supposed he _could_ cast the Imprevious charm on her, or her cage; to keep the water away, but that had the chance of attracting attention in the Non-magical public. But then, he didn't plan on being out of the magical world for too long.

From his laying down position on his bed Harry languidly reached over to his the clock upon the top of his dresser and grasped it, before brining it over into his vision range. A small grimace appeared upon his lips as he read the time off it. Five minutes had passed since twelve. He had been able to perform magic for five minutes. It wasn't much of a loss, but it was still a slight loss.

"Happy Birthday to me." Harry mumbled to himself before he picked his wand up from his dresser and brandished it towards the ceiling.

"_Saltatus Luminis_." he said forcefully as he jutted the tip of his wand to the right, and then flicked it upwards, and then curved it back around to its starting point.

Almost instantly a series of ghostly flickering lights faded into existence near the ceiling of the room. Harry snorted lightly as he watched the light bulb dangling from the ceiling flicker and die out as the magical essences of light aimlessly drifted around the ceiling. The light they provided wasn't strong, or bright, instead it was a soft warm glow. It almost felt like the suns rays on a warm day, not too hot, not cold enough to make you want more.

As Harry gazed up into the elegantly dancing lights he let a content smile settle upon his lips. He could, in all honestly, just lay back and watch the magical light float around the ceiling for eternity. But, of course, there were more important things to do. Such as learn how to use the spells he had picked out.

The _Astrum Ubi_ spell was a must. If he could isolate the spell's range to just the moon, sun, and earth then its potential would increase. The small kink that made the spell even more of an interest was that it made a point of where it was being cast from. But the wand motions were slightly complex, as expected from a spell that created such an effect.

The Volucris spell was an interesting little spell that Harry planed to make use of along with a transfiguration spell he had found. The idea had come from when Dumbledore had dueled with Voldemort in his fifth year. His use of the statue was interesting, it was, no doubt a common technique used in duels, but it was one he had not witnessed before. It would be useless in an area where the terrain was solid, such as inside a building, but in the open area's where nature provided it would be a neat little trick.

There wasn't much he could do as far as magical theory was concerned, the Hogwarts curriculum simplified make concessions where it concerned theory true magical theory, it was all specific to the subject at hand. Potions Books explained potions, Transfiguration Book's explained transfiguration, and Charms books explained charms.

Yet, nothing explained magic itself.

No one had even tried to define it in any of his books; And to make matters worse; he still had not found in any of the book's the magic that Daphne had him perform. It was wand less magic, much like what he had done year's prior to going to Hogwarts.

But that didn't make any sense at all.

The only magic that could be done without use of a wand was Apparation and the Animagus transformation. People were able to enchant things to be able to move upon a motion of a hand, but it wasn't that kind of magic. Was it even magic at all? He wasn't entirely certain that she hadn't put the lipstick on herself. Harry tried to clear his mind of the blonde Slytherin and the 'magic'. There was no reason to think about either of the subjects, no matter how enigmatic they were.

It was pointless when there were much more understandable things to think about, more so then ever since he had taken the time to read through the book's. He pointedly ignored the fact at certain point's he had skimmed through when it had gotten _far_ too boring. No one wanted to learn about Nostril hair trimming charms… Or at least he hoped not.

Over in the corner of the room, inside her cage, Hedwig hooted morosely. Harry felt sad at his companion's state. After the first week she had begun to become more quiet and quiet. She hadn't even, in the last month, made more then a few noises outside of the time she ate.

Harry sat up and gazed over at the white owl.

"You miss flying outside don't you?" Harry asked quietly.

His question drew Hedwig's eyes off the window towards him. She stared at him silently before hooting slightly more lively then before.

"Want to go and fly?" The green eyed boy asked suddenly

Hedwig simply stared at her master, and then, finally, after a few minutes of silent, Harry couldn't take any more.

"I can make it so the water won't touch you." Harry explained as he drew himself up off his bed. "_Impervious." _he said as he flicked the tip of his wand to the window.

A barely visible series of lines erupted from the tip of the wand with a sizzling sound and collided with the window. The moment the distortion hit the window, the water set upon it was banished off it, and the incoming water droplets adverted, curving downwards.

Hedwig suddenly screeched and dived forwards out of the cage. Suddenly, Harry found himself wishing he was a more confining owner; he had left Hedwig's cage open. Startled, Harry moved backwards, just in time to avoid Hedwig's sharp talon's from cutting into him, they instead dug down onto the mattress.

The screeches hadn't stopped, so Harry did the only thing he could think of.

He cast another spell.

"_Muffliato_." he hissed out quickly.

While it didn't make Hedwig stop screeching, it had the second best effect, it stopped people hearing her, people besides Harry himself, which saddened Harry slightly.

"Alright! I won't cast it on you!" Harry tried to assure his feathery friend.

The assurances seemed to aggravate the bird even further.

"If you want it cast then stop screeching!" Harry demanded.

Almost immediately, the white feathered bird complied, and opted to simply stare at the flustered boy across from her.

"What was that about?" Harry asked confusedly.

Hedwig hooted accusingly, how Harry knew the tone her hoot came in, he did not know.

"What, you threw a tantrum because you think I held it from you?" Harry said angrily.

The Snowy owl hooted again, this time, however, Harry could tell it was more of a 'Yes, you insolent human' kind of hoot.

"I couldn't do magic until a few minutes ago, cut me some slack." Harry said sourly.

Hedwig seemed to be ready to begin screeching again as she spread her wings out. But Harry beat her to the punch.

"Alright, alright! Here go and fly you brat." he said exasperatedly as he brandished his wand towards the pestilent bird and muttered the charm. The moment the charm began to take effect, Hedwig's body seemed to shimmer and distort. The distortion didn't settle for a few moment's, before it became centralised mostly on the avian feathers.

Hedwig _actually_ purred, before she took off in a flurry of motion and moved closer to the window.

Not wanting any more conflict from the spoilt bird, Harry quickly got up and opened the window. The moment it had been opened enough, Hedwig took immediate flight, not caring for the fact that she had slapped Harry with her wing.

The moment Hedwig left the sanctity of the room Harry lunged to the window and yelled out, "I'm not leaving the window open for you, you ungrateful sod!" after the bird.

Harry shut the window tightly.

He had planned to go to sleep before the 'sun' would rise. But since that was probably not going to happen anytime soon, the next best thing he could do, was Practice the Non-trajectory spells. Charms were a good choice, and so were Transfiguration. With that in mind, Harry set about practicing the spell's he had made note of. he honestly didn't expect to get much done in his current state, lacking sleep and hungry.

But no matter how much he was annoyed with Hedwig, he still cared about her…He didn't want her to hate him…He didn't want to get a new owl…He just wanted something to deliver his mail.

With that in mind Harry shook himself out of the daze he was slowly falling into and picked up the sheet of paper off his dresser. A glancing to the floor and the rest of his room, books were littered everywhere. He hadn't taken into account the fact he'd have to collect them all again and sort through them. The sheet of paper had the age number and name of each of the charm's he wanted to learn in them. It made things more troublesome, with the book's scattered to the four corner's of his room. But it was still manageable.

And that was how Harry spent the next six hour's of his life, until a rapping on the window caused him to turn his attention to the window. Beyond the glass he could clearly see Hedwig, he took note absently, of the fact that the window was no longer repelling the water.

It took him a few second's to realise exactly why Hedwig was so aggravated. The moment he realised why, he casually walked over to the window and opened it. The Saturated Owl flapped it's winged roughly and flew straight into the room. The owl, it seemed, was a very spiteful creature. The moment it was able to, it settled down upon the bed, right on the pillow.

Harry glared at the wet, agitated, and smug bird.

He was not in the mood for one of her temper tantrums. Physically, he was mostly fine, but mentally, he was exhausted, the lack of sleep coupled with the amount of magical practice he had been doing in the past six hour's had pushed him to the point where he wasn't sure that he could stay awake for much longer; and he did need to stay awake, even if it was just to clear the room of all the changes he had made in practice.

Flicking his wand to Hedwig, he cast a single charm.

"_Siccio_." He intoned tiredly.

Hedwig bristled immediately, before hooting contently and moving over however slightly, to make room for Harry's head.

"Don't bother." Harry said with a scowl as he laid down on the bed with his feet up where Hedwig was.

Harry shut his eyes the moments his head hit the mattress, he didn't know how long he remained still for, but it couldn't have been long, a feathery object came to rest near his head. A small wince escaped him as a literal peck on the cheek drew him from his much desired state of rest.

"What was that for?" Harry asked tiredly, not bothering to move a single muscle against the bird.

Hedwig just hooted lowly and disappeared from his vision. Harry tiredly reached up to his face and grasped his glasses, before languidly removing them from his face and throwing them haphazardly over his shoulder. Without any further distractions, or delays, Harry fell to the decreasing brain wave patterns inside his cerebrum, causing him to fall into the state known as sleep.

It seemed far too soon that a flustered Petunia would knock open the door, and demand that he left. The situation only looked set to get even worse as she took in the state of the room. Everywhere there were slab's of limestone, on the ground there was a pile of dirt, more then a few of the floor boards were missing, and every few feet there were small animal's, motionless, and off colour.

"What have you done?!" shrieked Harry's Aunt wildly.

"Sleep." mumbled Harry as he brandishes his wand vaguely towards the door.

The door to his room slammed closed in an instant, right in Petunia's face. Unfortunately, the tactic didn't work, and the volume at which the woman began to complain increased. While that by its self may have been bearable, having Dudley join in on the woman's rant wasn't as easy. The increase in noise was beginning to frustrate Harry, and if the movement on the other end of the bed was anything to go by, Hedwig was getting angry to.

"I'm up god damn it." Harry called out, despite the fact he was still snuggled down against the mattress underneath him.

"Boy, you said you'd be out of the house and gone before the afternoon, it's three o'clock right now." Vernon's haggard voice called above the other two Dursleys.

Harry growled slightly.

He had said he would be out before the afternoon ended. But he hadn't expected to stay up all night doing a refresher course in the last six year's of magic. It had been worth it though. The mental stress created via magic was a good sleeping aid, even, if at the time a major pain in the brain.

"I'm just getting changed, packing up, and leaving." Harry called out as he began to stir from his extremely comfortable position.

Outside his door the signs of life had all but vanished, the creaking of the stair told Harry that his family were going back to whatever they were doing before they decided he needed a reminder of what he needed to do

A sigh escaped his lips as he took in the state of his room. Had it been a year prior, or even a week, it'd have been almost impossible to fix, even without the restriction on his magical practice. However, A month and a half of reading did absolute wonder's for his cognitive abilities. In under five minute's all the transfiguration spell's and charm's were undone, leaving the room in almost a perfect state. A flicker of his wand and the muttering of '_S__arcina_' had all of his possessions erupt in a volatile storm and flow into his trunk.

The lid of the trunk snapped shut violently and latched down. Harry was holding the Hogwarts staff in contempt, or more specifically, Flitwick. The short, older man had many goods points, one of which revolved around his teaching method, he had only taught thing's which could have been considered interesting, which left out quite a few spells which actually _were_ useful, just because, if Harry assumed right, that the class wouldn't care for it.

One which he actually had taught them was the Levare charm, a variation of the Winguardium Leviosa charm. Instead of being a channelling spell it was an enchantment.

In Basic spell work there were three kinds of spells. Channelling spells, Enchantments, and Instantaneous spells. Each, as their names suggested, focused on a different aspect of casting.

Channelling spells were spells which needed constant attention to work. Windguardium Leviosa was a prime example unless the spell was controlled it would disperse and fail.

Enchantments were as a majority transfiguration spells. But charms such as Levare were counted also, because they only required a single casting and had a long lasting effect.

Instantaneous spells were a bit harder to define. The prime example would be a Stupification spell while it's casting was instant, and once used could not directly be reversed, as Enchantment's could, its effects were counter able. Magical Shields were a fine example of a way to counter Instantaneous magic.

There was one thing he picked up from the potion's books, which weirdly enough, coincided with the 'Trinity' of average spell types. Potions, to his surprise, were also grouped into three classes.

The three schools of potions were Restorative, Malicious and Supplementary. The processes of each type of potion stood in stark difference with each other. When mixing potions a wizard or witch had to be careful. While mixing each school with another of the same school. It allowed for a potion's effects to increase or work in conjunction with each other. Or on the other hand, it could cause them to mutate from their original effects.

Only the Restorative and Supplementary school's mixed seamlessly with each other. The Malicious branch when mixed with the Restorative branch would simply cancel the effects of both potions out. But when mixing between Malicious and Supplementary it was crucial that the potions effects did not converge at any point.

An example would be mixing a Bone breaking potion with a growing potion. Both potions would converge instantly. While the bones in the person's body were breaking, the shards would continue to expand and burst through a person's skin, resulting in a scene straight from a horror movie.

Some of the possibilities were interesting, especially when certain potions were concerned, potions such as Felicia Felix.

"_Levare_." Harry said carelessly as he flicked his wand towards the trunk which now contained his assorted belongings.

At first not a single thing seemed to have happened, as if the spell had failed, but if one had looked closely at the base of the trunk, they'd see it steadily, albeit slowly lifting off the ground, a small fraction of a millimetre at a time.

Without a pause Harry walked over to his trunk and gripped it by one of the handles on the side. In a light tug he had it up in the air floating, at the moment his tug finished, the trunk carried on with the motion, before he used his other hand to stabilise it.

If there was one thing which was inefficient about the Levare charm, it would be that while it almost completely disregarded gravities effects... it disregarded gravities effects, and without that holding it in place or pushing it down, the trunk was free to go where the actions placed upon it sent it. Luckily for Harry he knew what would have happened and had prepared for it to suddenly move and not stop.

Harry blinked rapidly as he stared at his trunk. The trunk had given him an idea, yet another spell combo he could use, one he doubted anyone else but Muggleborn's would have even assumed about. The boy who lived shook his head violently from side to side. The possibilities while amazing, were potentially lethal, for anyone in the vicinity. Although other spells could be used, he reasoned.

A scowl soon came into effect upon Harry's lips as he realised how much time he was wasting.

"Come on Hedwig; let's get out of this dump." Harry said as he glanced over his shoulder to the bird that had taken nest upon his, or rather, his old pillow.

A single amber eye opened and surveyed Harry, before glancing over to the creature's cage, which was sitting in the corner, unmoved. A second amber eye opened up and stared pointedly at Harry. A hoot followed along with the questioning gaze.

"You don't need a cage anymore, come on." Harry urged his bird as he stuck his arm out towards the bird.

At first Hedwig seemed uncertain, but after a few moments she spread her wings and took flight, landing a few seconds later on Harry's arm. A small grimace appeared on Harry's face as Hedwig's talons dug into his unprotected skin.

"How about you ride on top of the trunk?" Harry suggested through the pain which was beginning to spread through his arm.

Hedwig hooted irritated, before taking a small jump off Harry's arm onto the trunk. Her claws scratched the Trunks surface for a few moments, before they seemed to latch onto the wooden exterior.

Harry nodded to himself, before turning his gaze to the rest of the room, checking if there was anything that he had missed. As he had expected, there was nothing but the bare exterior of the room, and a few small mounds of dirt on the floor. For a moment he contemplated cleaning it up, before dismissing the action, he was sure his relatives would prefer him gone, rather then have him stay to clean up a small mess.

With his eyes finally set forward Harry prepared to leave the room, before he can to his first dilemma; the door was still closed.

"Can you open the door?" Harry asked the snowy owl which was hitching a ride in front of him.

The bird turned his head around slowly to face the wizard. Her eyes stared imperviously, and she did not make a single sound.

"Spoiled wretch." Harry said sourly as he released his hold upon the trunk.

Hedwig's eyes widened slightly, and her wings expanded, ready to take flight the moment the trunk would fall. But it never did, instead it drifted to the right slightly, indicating one thing; Harry's right hand had not been applying the same amount of pressure when he had let go as his left hand had.

Harry walked around the trunk to the door and turned the handle, at first it didn't want to budge, but after a few well placed shakes, it came loose, and the door opened up. He turned his attention back to the trunk, only to find that it was a fair bit closer to the ground then he had imagined it, and that Hedwig was jumping up and down, seeming to find amusement with the trunk's motions.

He decided quite quickly, that Hedwig's fun had gone on for long enough, and gripped the trunk by both sides and lifted it up. The sudden shift in direction had Hedwig fumble for a second, before she regained her balance and screeched.

"You can play later." Harry said bemusedly as he pushed the trunk through the doorway.

Harry made it halfway down the stairs before one of his relatives noticed the ease at which he carried the large and probably heavy trunk.

"Since when did you get to strong?" Dudley demanded to know as he watched on with a mix of fascination and fear.

"It's magic." Harry said flatly as he continued down the stairs.

Once he reached the bottom, he glanced back up at Dudley, who was watching from the top, with a bag of lollies in his hand. Something seemed wrong with the picture, and then, Harry noticed it; Dudley's hands were actually absent from his posterior. In prior times, at the slightest mention of magic Dudley had instantly felt fear for his buttock.

"Over your fear of magically induced tails are you?" Harry asked amusedly as he let lent down and placed his trunk on the floor. He held it there for a few seconds before letting go, to make sure the reaction force form the ground wouldn't cause it to rise quickly.

Dudley let off a semi-lucid laugh.

"Mummy said you wouldn't be able to do stuff like that oaf who brought you your letter did." Dudley said pompously.

Harry stared up at Dudley in disbelief.

"The person who picked me up the first time got expelled in his third Year; if I go back to school I'll be in my seventh." Harry said as he idly twirled his wand between his finger tips.

Yet again Dudley surprised him, by grinning.

"Your magic won't work on me anyway." he said as, with his free hand, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a grotesque object, it looked like a shrunken head, but Harry couldn't be sure. "I got this from a gypsy at a travelling circus; she said it'd protect me from curses. So you can take your magic and stuff it." Dudley said as he grinned stupidly down the stairs.

Harry stared up at Dudley flatly, before he waved his wand in Dudley's direction, while silently casting a quick Evanesco. The lollies in Dudley's hand promptly vanished. The rotund boy stared at his hand in shock for a few moments, before he began to inhale.

"MUMMY!" Dudley yelled out.

Almost instantly, the sound of a utensil hitting the kitchen floor sounded through the room, and Petunia appeared through the door, worry etched all over her face.

"What's the matter?" she asked worriedly as she gazed upwards to Dudley's large mass of a body.

"He made my candy disappear!" Dudley said angrily as he pointed down to Harry, who had, since, put his wand away and had adopted an innocent look upon his face.

Petunia glanced at Harry, who, as he intended to be, was the epitome of innocence and confusion.

"I think he already ate the candy." Harry whispered softly to his Aunt.

Petunia seemed to nod to her self a little, before calling out to Dudley again. "Don't worry sweetie, I'll go and get some more candy for you."

The idea that he would get more candy seemed to pacify Dudley for a moment as he stared down at his mother. The moment his eyes sought out Harry again however, the contentment seemed to vanish.

Harry was no where in sight, and the door was left wide open.

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	3. Notice

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When i began writing I said i'd never post a chapter just for the sake of putting out a notice, but I guess not everyone can keep their own word all the time.

**I suppose this is quite over-due, but i am afraid the circumstances just hit the point where I doubt i'll be able to continue soon enough with any of my stories. Before today it was because I ahd other engagement to attend to, such as school work and family. Unfortunately, I just received news that I have apparently lost every single byte of data on both my harddrives, which mean of course, that I have lost every single file to which I have any writing on, including all my notes.**

**I am offically on hiatus until I can gather my thought's and put everything back down onto paper, or file so to speak, or atleast until I get my computer back and am able to see for certain if i've lost everything, or the company I was forced to send the computer to has tried to take a bit more money then they are entitled. The original problem with the computer was a bit of trouble with the ramslot's, or so i assumed, but I won't get into that, my apologies to everyone who was waiting for an update on Intertwined, An Alternate path, or Veneficus, but i will be unable to update for atleast a few more weeks.  
**

**Not the best start to the new year, but it's a start, and i'll try and make a finish( for one of my stories) by the end.  
**

**Once again, my apologies,**

**_Jon_**

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_P.S I have something I was working on a few month's ago which was on my laptop, thankfully, i'll be uploading it within a few days, so, look forward to it, or not. _

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